


why do we jump in?

by VolunteerFieryDantooinian



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Angst, Could be killerflashvibe if you squint, Cuddling, Drowning, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Metahumans, Nosebleeds, Short Drabble, vibes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-17
Updated: 2017-05-17
Packaged: 2018-11-01 22:34:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10931400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VolunteerFieryDantooinian/pseuds/VolunteerFieryDantooinian
Summary: Cisco is outmatched and alone. Barry deals with the aftermath.Title from AURORA's "Under the Water"





	why do we jump in?

**Author's Note:**

> The plot of this is vaguely based off of the vibe Cisco has in "I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory."

 

They have a system.

With your average cases, run-of-the-mill metas, petty criminals, and the like, Wally, Cisco, and Barry would alternate. Now it was Cisco's turn, on a meta they had argued for 10 minutes over whether she was a 1-person job or not. He had a sinking feeling she wouldn't be when he pulled up her roster.

22 years old, tall, with long, red hair and bright aquamarine eyes. Her real name was Kathleen Claycomb, but Cisco had decided to call her Abyss. This was for a good reason, too. She had incredible hydrokinetic powers, and usually dressed in a blue-black bodysuit that was designed to look like it was covered in fish scales, black boots, and a fiery temper.

So yeah, he had a good reason to be nervous. 

"Are you sure you don't want me to help?" Barry asked, green eyes fleetingly nervous. Cisco stepped forward, shoes squeaking on the tile floors in the cortex. 

"I've got it." He leaned up and kissed him briefly, then slipped his vibe goggles on. He glanced over at the computer, seeing her current location was 55th and Ashe. That wasn't too far, so he was unlikely to give himself a seizure or a stroke or anything like that. Cisco concentrated and opened up a swirling blue vortex, saluted Barry, and stepped through.

He'd overestimated the location just a little, and ended up a few feet above the street itself. It wasn't hard to stick the landing, making sure it was as cliche as possible. Sure enough, Abyss was standing a few feet away, blue eyes glowing with a shattered, almost bionic light. She was clutching a huge duffel bag filled with, presumably, stolen goods from the stores down the block. 

"Hey, you might want to drop that." Cisco snarked, crossing his arms and giving her a reprimanding glare. She laughed. 

"Who are you supposed to be? A  _superhero?_ Oh no, I'm  _so_ scared." She smirked at him, and with a flick of her fingers burst the fire hydrant nearest to her. A column of water soared up to meet her demands, and he fired off a sonic blast at her. She blocked it with a water blob, and he fired off a few more shots before deciding that was futile. Abyss was too good at blocking. He had to get her guard down somehow. 

Cisco danced around her, firing off as many blasts as he could manage, even getting in a few punches. Nothing seemed to get her to stop. Abyss backflipped over him and shoved him away with a watery blast, cold and uncomfortable against his skin. 

"How's it going?" Barry asked over the comms, and Cisco shrugged. 

"Easy enough so far, but I need to distract her and get an opening. Any ideas?" He exclaimed, dodging a watery fist coming his way and firing off a shot that barely glanced off of her shoulder. She winced, and the fire in her eyes grew brighter, actually hitting him this time. Cisco flew backwards and slammed into the sidewalk, letting out a pained cry as it scraped up his arm, badly. There was a twinge of pain in his ankle as he stood. 

"I think I've got one, but it's risky. A total Portal move if you're up for that." He mused, and Cisco nodded. 

"I'm up for it, baby. What's your plan?" He inquired, ducking again and trying to get closer to his target. He managed to get in a good punch, but her water shoved him back to the ground, and he blasts her again.

"Well, I need you to open a portal above her head. Drop down on her, get her with your sonic blasts. She'll never see it coming." Barry enthused, and Cisco grinned. 

"Gotcha. I'll see you back at the lab, Flash." He flirted, putting a little bit of an amorous tone into his voice. Barry laughed. 

Cisco concentrated, backing away from Abyss a little bit so she couldn't distract him, and opened a flowering, light blue portal, diving in and, sure enough, coming out right on top of her. He hit her with one blast but before he could get the second one in, she grabbed him with a pair of tentacle-esque water appendages, squeezing painfully and dropping him to the ground. He hit the asphalt hard and rolled onto his side, ribs complaining as his head pounded dreadfully. Cisco was pretty sure his nose was bleeding, a typical side affect from opening more than 1 portal within a 10 minute time span. 

Abyss smirked with blue-black lips, eyes shining fractured, watery blue. She began to form a wall of water behind her, and with one tentacle she shoved him against the brick, the mortar digging into his back painfully. 

"Cisco? Cisco!" Barry's voice was wild and frightened over the comms. 

"I-I've got it." He managed, and fired off 3 blasts in quick succession. She slumped, blood dripping down her face. Cisco sighed with relief and freed himself, taking out a pair of handcuffs and walking over to her slumped form.

Just as he was about to cuff her and get this over with, Abyss laughed and sprung to her feet.

"So, you really think I'm that weak? Adorable."

She burst another hydrant, adding to her arsenal, and all of a sudden a crushing wall of water came down on him, encasing his torso and head. She shoved him hard against the bricks, scratching his jacket. His hair was suspended in the water like a dark, wavy cloud, drifting in his eyes.

Cisco struggled violently, but she squeezed harder, and his ears popped. He concentrated and his hands crackled electric blue, and he tried so, so hard to open a portal but he just couldn't. 

Suddenly, his hands fizzled out, sparks dying, and a stream of impromptu bubbles rushed from his mouth as he fought. His lungs were aching and burning for oxygen, and she squeezed harder, and he knew his nose was bleeding even worse now. He involuntarily inhaled and instead of air, sucked in water, burning his throat. Somehow, she had him off the ground, and he winced as he slammed his elbow against the bricks when he struggled. 

Cisco tried to cough again and again as he sucked in water, and it burned his chest with the effort. A stream of bubbles obscured his vision. He went to the trouble of summoning a blast. He hit her, but she didn't stop, and now when he coughed there were barely any bubbles escaping his lips. When he inhaled and exhaled, it was water that rushed in and out, with little oxygen left. 

The only thing he could hear was water rushing in his ears, his heartbeat rushing in his ears,  all at once, and the static in his ears was rising. Suddenly the pressure dropped, and he dropped too, like a puppet with its strings cut as everything went black.

 

 

\--

 

 

Cisco felt things before he opened his eyes. Pain swam through his head and his ears popped, and there was something wet dripping down his chin. Something soft and warm was pressed against his mouth, and something shifted painfully in his chest. Most noticeably, he couldn't breathe, and as he fought his chest heaved hard. Suddenly someone was sitting him up, a small but strong arm around his shoulders keeping him upright. He vaguely heard people talking, everything frantically buzzing.

The arm around his shoulders was gone, and someone, likely the owner of the original arm, had one arm wrapped around his chest to prop him up. They pushed hard with their palm in the spot between his shoulder blades, hard enough to hurt, and he choked on the water trapped in his lungs. They did it again, and this time he coughed, a gush of blood-tinted water burning his throat and splashing on the floor. He kept coughing, and the water came up in gushes, painful and nauseating. The arms around him loosened after making sure he could cough on his own, and he nearly fell forward. Someone caught his shoulders gently. 

Cisco opened his eyes. "Oh, thank god," Barry gasped in relief, and smoothed his wet hair away from his forehead and out of his eyes. Caitlin was sitting next to him, one hand on his arm, looking vaguely terrified. Her lab coat had a little bit of blood on it, and he made a mental note to apologize for that later. "You weren't breathing for a little bit and fuck, I thought you were gonna die." His voice was shaky, and Cisco gave him a shakier grin. He coughed, his breathing an uncomfortable, bubbly wheeze, which definitely wasn't good. Blood, warm and metallic, was dripping from his nose and down his throat. 

He actually took the time to look around and figure out where they were. After a little, he was able to figure out he was on the floor of the medbay, and he looked like a fucking mess. Cisco relaxed against Barry, exhaustion starting to take hold.

"I-I wanna--go home." He choked out, starting to cough again, a little bit of water and blood dripping onto his hand. It probably looked like he was dying, if we were being honest. 

"No way, mister. You're not getting off that easily." Caitlin frowned at him, and checked his vitals quickly. "I want you staying here for observation; your lungs could fill with fluid, or you could choke on your own blood." She explained quietly. He sighed, and coughed again. 

"Ever the optimist." Cisco chuckled, and closed his eyes, letting out a pained sigh. "Oh man, I feel like shit." He managed, before launching into a coughing fit so intense he almost gagged. Caitlin winced, setting one hand on his shoulder gently, and Barry rubbed his back in small circles.

"Cisco, baby, you need to get some rest." He fretted, green eyes tumultuous with worry.

"As a doctor, I second that. Maybe try to get some fluids in you, too. You look really, really pale, Cisco." Caitlin acted as the voice of reason yet again, helping him sit up and frowning when he coughed. "If you're not careful, you'll catch pneumonia." His lungs were still fucked up, and he knew she was right. Coughing would do him some good, though. As if on cue, he started coughing violently, chest tight as he wheezed and gasped for air.

Shakily, he tilted his head forward and pressed his hand to his nose, slipping off his gloves. Warm, sticky blood dripped down his hand, and as Barry rubbed his back, he gagged hard on the blood in his throat. Caitlin passed him a glass of water and he took it with shaking, bloodied fingers. 

"Slow sips." She reminded him, and at that point he barely cared. Cisco drank, faster than he should've but not fast enough to nauseate him any worse. It helped the taste of the blood go away, but it didn't help the taste of the memories go down any easier. She gently fitted an arm around his shoulders. "I need you to sit up for me, ok? Sit still, try to breathe." She instructed, voice soft and calm. He sat up a little bit, head spinning from coughing so hard. Caitlin slipped an oxygen mask over his face, and he breathed deep, sighing hard and slipping into another coughing fit. She brought her arm around him again and hit the flat of her palm against his back a few times. 

"I- _fuck._ " He gasped, coughing involuntarily and hard, the heart monitor spiking, and he groaned in pain and exhaustion. Pulling his mask out of the way just in time, his lungs spasmed hard and expelled a gush of blood-tinged water onto the floor. She hit him again, gentler this time, and he coughed painfully, water dribbling down his chin. It hurt, and it hurt bad, but he knew it was helping. By the time she'd finished, he was very sore and exhausted, but he was breathing easier. Shivers dragged up and down his spine like waves combing the shore.

"I'm sorry, Cisco. I know that hurt, but having that stuff sitting in your lungs wasn't doing you any good." She frowned, biting her lip, and Barry rubbed his back, pulling him into his lap. Gentle, vibrating circles, familiar and warm. 

"She's right, sweetheart. Your lungs were a mess, you could've caught pneumonia."

Cisco nodded, and slipped the mask back on. He rolled up his sleeve. Caitlin pulled out the first aid kit and started gently cleaning out the cuts on his arm, wiping at the painful, deep scrapes with disinfectant, then putting some sort of salve on them. She bandaged it up carefully, securing it with medical tape and one of Cisco's rainbow bandaids for good measure.

Carefully and slowly, Barry picked him up, holding him in his arms gently as he deposited him onto the hospital bed. 

"We need to get you dried off, honey, you're freezing." Barry worried, and ran off, returning in a second wearing normal clothes and carrying a huge star labs sweatshirt, obviously his, and a pair of black nike shorts, obviously Ciscos'. Caitlin turned around as to preserve his privacy, and so did Barry, which was appreciated. They knew he was sensitive about this kind of thing. 

Cisco unzipped the vest-like jacket top part of his suit that had the binding material installed, which was something he'd toiled over for months. Passing as a superhero was hard as fuck. He kicked off his shoes and slipped the sweatshirt over his head, instantly cocooned in soft warmth. It hid his chest well enough, so Barry's sweatshirt instantly held the Cisco seal of approval. With some struggle he wriggled out of the suit's pants, making sure he didn't set off any gadgets by accident. He put on the shorts, which were also nice, especially since they didn't have water and blood all over them like his suit.

"You're all good." He mumbled, and Barry climbed up next to him onto the bed, letting Cisco recline against his chest and tangle their legs together. Caitlin sat in the chair next to the bed, taking Cisco's hand and squeezing it gently. He curled one arm around Barry's waist, and Barry pulled the blankets over him. 

Exhaustion swept over him quickly, and Barry stroked his hair, kissing his forehead and murmuring soft little comforts. 

"Try to get some sleep, honey. You're really cold, you need to warm up. Caitlin, come up here." He whispered, motioning for her to get up onto the already crowded cot. She grabbed a blanket and climbed up, draping it over herself and Cisco. He didn't let go of her hand, just adjusted his position against Barry's chest so she could fit easier, making sure his mask stayed on.

All of this was making him very tired, and he curled up a little more, surrounded in warmth, though Cait was, of course, a little cold. Barry kept on stroking his hair gently with vibrating hands, pressing soft kisses to his face and lips. The rhythm of the monitors were making him sleepy. Soon, he drifted off, feeling considerably safer, and knowing that as long as he had Team Flash, everything would be ok in the end. 

 

 

 


End file.
